In recent years, techniques have widely spread for distributing contents, such as video and/or audio, by streaming. The streaming is a system in which a playback apparatus plays back content data while receiving the same.
As the technique related to the streaming, the following technique has been proposed, for example. In this technique, a server selects one client as an intermediate node based on the execution throughput of each client in a group, and transmits a source packet to the selected client. The client functioning as the intermediate node transmits the received packet to another client included in the group.
The data (streaming data) distributed by streaming may be distributed in a compressed state by a Variable Bit Rate (VBR) system. The variable bit rate system is a compression system in which the data amount needed for playback per unit time varies. The variable bit rate system has an advantage that a total data amount may be suppressed while maintaining the quality of video and/or audio.
International Publication No. WO 2003-105421
A system has been contemplated, where a playback apparatus having received streaming data plays back this data and transfers the same to other one or more playback apparatuses. Such a system is suitable, for example, for a system where playback apparatuses may communicate with each other in peer-to-peer (P2P).
In such a system, even when the transmission speed on the receiving side of a playback apparatus is sufficiently high and the playback operation in the playback apparatus is normally executed, the transmission speed between the playback apparatus and a playback apparatus of a transfer destination is not always sufficiently high. When the transmission speed between the playback apparatus and a playback apparatus of a transfer destination decreases, a late distribution or drop-off of transferred data may occur and the playback operation in the playback apparatus of a transfer destination might be interrupted. In particular, if sections each having a large data amount per unit playback time continuously appear in the streaming data of a variable bit rate, there is a problem that the playback operation in a playback apparatus of a transfer destination is likely to be interrupted when the transmission speed decreases.